Installing PHP 5.
1 On Windows
1. The PHP setup file is a zip archive. Extract the contents of the zip file
using Winzip or any other archiving tool
2. In the extraction process, all the zipped files will be extracted into a
folder, whose name is based on the version of PHP that was
downloaded. For example, if php-5.1.0RC1-Win32.zip was
downloaded and extracted to C:\, there will be a folder called C:\php-
5.1.0RC1-Win32\ where the files extracted can be found
3. Rename the folder php-5.1.0RC1-Win32 to php (Refer to diagram
1.1)
Diagram 1.1: The Directory Structure
4. To integrate PHP with Apache2 there are three options available:
a. Copy the file named php5ts.dll available under c:\php to the
Windows system directory
b. Copy the file named php5ts.dll to the web server's directory
c. Add the PHP directory i.e. c:\php to the PATH variable
The use of the third option is recommended, as this option will
help when upgrading to a newer version of PHP in future.
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Add c:\php to the PATH variable as follows:
a. Select Start Æ Control Panel Æ System. System Properties
dialog box appears as shown in diagram 1.2
Diagram 1.2: The System Properties in control panel
b. Select the Advanced tab. Refer to diagram 1.3
Diagram 1.3: The System Properties Advanced Tab
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c. Click Environment Variables. This pops up a window as shown in
diagram 1.4
Diagram 1.4: The System Properties Environment Variables
d. Select the Path variable under System variables section and click
Edit. This pops up a window, in the text box Variable value add
;C:\php at the end of the path as shown in diagram 1.5
Diagram 1.5: The Edit System variable window
e. Click OK to apply these settings
5. The next step is to set up a valid configuration file for PHP i.e. php.ini.
There are two ini files distributed in the zip file i.e. php.ini-dist and
php.ini-recommended. Use the php.ini-recommended, as it is
optimized with the default settings for performance and security
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6. Copy the chosen ini-file (i.e. php.ini-recommended) to the windows
directory (i.e. c:\windows or c:\winnt as the case may be) directory
and rename it to php.ini
If the file system in use is NTFS on Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003,
make sure that the user running the web server has read
permissions to the php.ini.
PHP is now setup on the Windows system.
Binding The PHP Installation With Apache2
Apache does not know that PHP is just installed. Therefore Apache needs
to be informed about PHP especially where to find it.
This is done via Apache's httpd.conf file. Apache reads this file and
understands what modules need to be loaded and where these modules
are located.
It is not mandatory to have Apache web server installed in order to
test .php scripts. These scripts can simply be run using the
interpreter php.exe. This can be accomplished by appending the
.php script file as a command line argument to php.exe interpreter.
There are two ways to configure Apache to use PHP.
One is to configure it to load the PHP interpreter as an Apache module.
The other is to configure it to run the PHP interpreter as a CGI binary.
It is recommended that PHP is loaded as a module in Apache,
since it runs more efficiently that way, unless there is a specific
reason for running PHP as a CGI binary.
Edit Apache's httpd.conf file. Make sure the PHP mime type is specified
and uncommented. The line should look like this: (Refer to diagram 1.6)
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
This line means that every file that ends with .php will be processed as a
PHP file.
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If need arises to support other file types, like .php3, .html, .asp
and .phtml, simply add them to the list, like this:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php3
AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
AddType application/x-httpd-php .asp
The httpd.conf file is usually available under C:\Program
Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf on Windows.
Ensure that the PHP module is loaded by adding the following line in the
httpd.conf file
LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2.dll"
This line tells Apache from where to load the .dll file in case of Windows
or the .so file in case of Linux which is required to execute PHP. This line
enables loading the PHP module dynamically into Apache. Usually in Linux
the PHP source installer automatically inserts this line. If this line does not
exist then insert it manually in the httpd.conf file.
Diagram 1.6: The httpd.conf file modification
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In the Apache 1.3.X, AddModule directive was used instead of
LoadModule.
In case of Apache 1.3.X, search for the block AddModule statement.
Add the following line after the last AddModule statement:
AddModule mod_php5.c
mod_php5.c file is not available anywhere in the file system. It only
specifies the order in which the Apache Web server enables the
various modules.
If Apache 2.X is used, then do not insert the AddModule directive.
It's no longer needed in that version. Apache 2.X has its own
internal method of determining the correct order of loading the
modules.
Restart Apache server. PHP files should be able to be served up now.
Testing PHP / Apache
Registering Changes Made In The httpd.conf of Apache2
After making any changes to the httpd.conf ensure that Apache is
restarted to register the new changes with Apache. Do this by using the
icon on the task bar: (Refer to diagram 1.7)
Diagram 1.7: Restarting Apache2
To test whether PHP has been successfully setup and integrated with
Apache2 create a simple script named phpinfo.php that contains the
following code: (Refer to diagram 1.8)
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
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Diagram 1.8: The phpinfo.php file in Notepad
Place this file in Apache's default document root directory i.e.
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs. Examine the
output of this script in a Web browser by pointing to
http://127.0.0.1/phpinfo.php. If PHP setup is successful then a screen
similar to that shown in diagram 1.9 will be displayed.
Diagram 1.9: PHP Version Info displayed via Web Bowser
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